A feast at Pied A Terre

A dinner experience like no other, I recently was privileged enough to try the Tasting Menu experience at Pied A Terre. The restaurant has one magical Michelin star and is located in the middle of Soho – right by Goodge Street Station. Scroll down to the photos for a course by course visual feast and read about the experience below…

Canapés to start: A light seafood mousse with seafood cracker.

Canapés to start, beetroot and celeriac puree.

Asimakis Chaniotis is the man behind the menu and the executive chef of the restaurant, which is owned my restaurateur David Moore, who is regularly, greets and serves guests front of house. I’m not entirely sure where to start with the dining experience, as it was completely overwhelming and delicious.Pied A Terre is understated from the outside, but was beautifully dressed for the festive season, and the shiny red Michelin placard placed outside. I attended with a fellow journalist and blogger, and we were treated to the 7 (!!) course tasting menu, PLUS 2 rounds of canapes and a palette cleanser. And bread. Wowza, yes.

Gorgeous gluten free bread, with greek dipping oil.

The attentive waiters poured us still water, before swiftly bringing these little morsels over to the table. The kitchen was already aware I was gluten and dairy free, and we received these dainty fish mousse canapés and a beetroot and celeriac puree.
In front of us they also placed some delicious gluten free bread, and some dipping oil for me instead of tarragon butter. The oil was deliciously thick, and later when I met Askimakis, he told me it was from his hometown in Greece, located just above Athens. This fact alone shows the love and attention that goes into every ingredient, and its source is particularly important to authentic flavour.

A palette cleanser before the tasting menu began, a fresh fennel salad.

We were then served a palette cleanser of fennel salad and this was all before course one of the tasting menu had even begun! Treated to seven delicious courses, which you can see below, I was blown away by the sheer quality and attention to detail of the food. Literally – food art! And it tasted pretty good too.

Overall, I have to say one of the most impressive elements of our meal was the sommelier – Oliver Christie. He handpicked the wine for each of our courses, and tailored them depending on what dish we had (some of mine which were allergy friendly were different to my pals!) He gave us each one, let us enjoy it, and then came back to tell us more about it. Did you know the signature smell of a Reisling is a sniff of petrol? Or that the Japanese white wine that came with our first course was one of the best I’ve ever tasted? (It was a 2016 Koshu Kayagatake for the wine buffs amongst you – listen to me sounding like I know what I’m talking about!) He presented such information in a fabulously informative way and really made the experience go that one step further. And knew so much about all the wines on a thirty page wine list!! I just about manage to pick a Pinot Grigio from Sainsburys supermarket shelf…
Head chef Askmakis also took us downstairs to the kitchen, which was amazing to see the end of service take place, even if it was just for a second. A dining experience like no other, I would strongly recommend a special dinner at Pied a Terre, particularly the Tasting Menu Experience with wine pairs. It’s not a cheap night – at over £100 a head, but worth it for something really very special.
I would definitely family and friends back to sample the A La Carte.